The present disclosure relates to a packaging box for protecting a packaged article during its conveyance, storage and others.
A type-A packaging box formed of a packaging material, such as a cardboard, is often used in conveying or storing an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile or a multifunctional peripheral, or components composing the image forming apparatus. The type-A packaging box is a box formed such that an opening of a box-like body part is opened/closed by a plurality of folding flaps. This type of box is widely used because it is relatively inexpensive.
In such a packaging box, when the flaps are folded outside and the opening is opened in order to take out the packaged article, the flaps are not folded along an outer face of the body part but project in an oblique-downwardly outward direction from an upper edge of the body part. In such a case, during a work taking in/out the packaged article, a worker's leg comes in contact with a tip end of the flap to interfere the work and to make the working posture unstable, and therefore, work efficiency is deteriorated. In a case where the packaging box has a cubic shape, because a length of the flap is lengthened, the tip end of the flap frequently interferes.
Thereupon, as a dedicated member for fixing the flap, a holding assembly may be used to grip and to fix adjacent side plates and the flaps which are opened and folded up the outside of the side plates at a corner of the body part.
However, if such a dedicated holding assembly is used, it costs to manufacture the holding assembly, management of a storage space of the holding assembly is needed and a man-hour increases because a worker goes to the storage space to get the holding assembly when opening the packaging box.